


greater than gravity

by sapphfics



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It, Reunions, the Doctor Donna we all deserved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 03:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15404400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: The Doctor blinks, stops wringing her hands together. She is still getting used to her new body, new facial expressions, and she is growing tired. Sometimes she wishes she could tell anyone her name, her real name, without ripping apart the thin threads of time and space. “I...I’m going to visit an old friend. Someone I…someone who my previous self loved very much.”The Doctor’s head gets so full of memories, every regeneration means letting go of some. But she’d let go of the memories of all the planets in the universe before she’d forget her friends.“Oh!” Yasmin says, grins. “Well, I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you, won’t they?”“She doesn’t remember me.” The Doctor says. “My previous self...I wiped her mind, of everything. It’s complicated. But I’ve finally figured out a way to bring her memories back without burning up her mind. She was...she’s the most important woman in the whole universe and I want her to remember that, if nothing else.”Or: Thirteen fixes Ten’s mistake and finally reunites with Donna Noble





	greater than gravity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LesbianDaeneryss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianDaeneryss/gifts).



> happy birthday!! <3 <3 <3
> 
> haven’t written dw in forever but i hope this isn’t too bad!
> 
> warnings: there is a reference to self harm and death

Merlin: Ah, you know, lad, that love business is a powerful thing.  
Arthur: Greater than gravity?  
Merlin: Well yes, boy, in its way... yes, I'd say it's the greatest force on earth.

— _The Sword in the Stone_ , Disney 

* * *

They’ve explored seven galaxies, picniced twice on the planet with a sky full of different coloured moons, and saved the world more than eighteen times before the Tardis descends to Earth in what is quite possibly the most peaceful landing in any of the Doctor’s lives.

“Doctor, you’re nervous,” Yasmin says, her head resting in her hands, her eyebrow raised. It’s not a question. “Why?”

The Doctor blinks, stops wringing her hands together. She is still getting used to her new body, new facial expressions, and she is growing tired. Sometimes she wishes she could tell anyone her name, her real name, without ripping apart the thin threads of time and space. “I...I’m going to visit an old friend. Someone I…someone who my previous self loved very much.”

The Doctor’s head gets so full of memories, every regeneration means letting go of some. But she’d let go of the memories of all the planets in the universe before she’d forget her friends.

“Oh!” Yasmin says, grins. “Well, I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you, won’t they?”

“She doesn’t remember me.” The Doctor says. “My previous self...I wiped her mind, of everything. It’s complicated. But I’ve finally figured out a way to bring her memories back without burning up her mind. She was...she’s the most important woman in the whole universe and I want her to remember that, if nothing else.”

“Sounds like she was a bit more than a friend, if you ask me,” Ryan adds.

The Doctor laughs. “Well, she did snog me once. It was to counteract a poison but…everyone thought we were married. But my previous self...we didn’t feel anything towards each other romantically.”

“You’re not him anymore, though, are you?” Graham adds, because apparently being the Doctor’s friend now include being his therapist. “Maybe you could be something. If you both wanted.”

“I’ve not seen her in years,” The Doctor admits. “I get news, occasionally. Mostly from her grandad. Her husband passed away a few months ago, around the same time I found the cure.”

“Bring her flowers,” Yasmin says. “Orchids, maybe. That’ll get the point across.”

“She might kill me when she finds out what I did,” The Doctor bites her lip. “She cried...she was crying when I did. She begged me not to make her go back...it broke both my hearts.”

“You could...once you’ve given her back her memories you should invite her to come with us,” Graham says. “Always nice to meet your best friend’s friend.”

“Ok,” The Doctor says, trying to remember to breathe.

The Tardis lands right outside her house and Yasmin practically pushes her out the door.

-:-

Donna and Shaun had bought the house together, when they married. It feels empty without Shaun. Everything feels empty. Shaun was the only one who could make it less so, and now she doesn’t even that. She’d set their bed ablaze the night he died, almost burned the house down too. She’d stopped the fire before that, though.

She’s still got some time off work, to get herself back on her feet, but without work she is allowing herself to drown in grief. The knock at the door surprises her. If it’s her mother, she might finally punch her. Donna knows that she looks like she hasn’t slept for a week, a cup of coffee in her hand, her hair a mess. She doesn’t bother looking in the mirror anymore. Her mother would scold her that she’s let herself go so much, but Donna’s just wondering why she hasn’t let herself join Shaun yet.

The woman outside her door looks like she stepped out of a lesbian wedding, tuxedo and all. “I’m sorry, do I know you? You’re not the new lesbian neighbours, are you? You’re real brave, moving here. I would’ve baked you something rainbow themed but -”

“No,” The Doctor replies. “I’m not a neighbour.”

“Oh ok. I’m...Well then, I’m Donna Noble-Temple.” Donna says, her fingers rubbing her temple. Her head feels as if it’s in a skullcap, some malevolent force slowly squeezing it. “I’m sorry...I have a headache. So, what did you -”

The woman touches the space in her head where the headaches always starts to form.

To this day, Donna doesn’t recall how exactly the Doctor gave her back her memories. What she does know is this: they all flood her at once and it hurts. It hurts less than when he took them away - that felt like he hit her in the back of the head with a sledgehammer, like being burned alive, like choking. She had felt numb for months afterwards, never escaping the feeling that there was something missing but it was always just out of reach. Once, she’d asked her grandad if he ever felt like that before and he’d looked at her as if she’d just told him she was dying. She remembers being thirteen and realising her mother was never going to love her for who she was and trying to strangle herself staring in her bathroom mirror. It had scared her more than anything, wanting to die.

The last memory frightens her more.

“You -“

Donna hugs the Doctor. She can’t think what else to do. She wants to say a thousand things.

“Come with me?” The Doctor asks. “I’ve got some friends I want to introduce you too, if you...if you wanted.”

Donna stands, for a long moment. Just stands. Staring at her. “Are you..are you still the you I knew? Will you take my memories away again?”

“Never,” The Doctor promises. She’s not lying.

“Good,” Donna says. She leads the Doctor upstairs to help her pack. “Try that shit again and you’ll regret regenerating.”

It doesn’t take long to pack. Her suitcase is small. There isn’t much she needs; there never was.

She phones her grandad - “Grandad, I remember everything! I’m going...I’m going with the Doctor. I’ll come back with my memories, I swear.” - and they both cry tears of joy. She only leaves her mother a note, held under a biscuit tin.

She waves to the Doctor’s new friends. “Hi, I’m Donna. But I guess you could say I’m the Doctor Donna. Where to now? Personally, I’d love to pay a visit to River Song?”

“Oh, this is gonna be fun!” The Doctor grins at her, like the Old Doctor used to, but better somehow.

Donna is not nothing. She remembers that now. She will remember it after the Doctor takes their final breath, after every last star dies, after the sun dwarfs the earth entirely.

The universe will remember it too.

The Doctor will make sure of it.


End file.
